This is new. We don’t have equivalents of the National Crime Victimization Surveys for cyberspace. We don’t have FBI compiled crime statistics. What we have are lost of people with lots of opinions, making lots of noise. It can be hard to get your message heard over the noise.

Tufte talks about credibility as one important outcome of good visualization. How showing your data effectively can make your case for you. In security, we haven’t shown our work very often. That’s why in the New School, Andrew and I made gather and analyze good data two of our key closing points. Some people have suggested they wanted more specifics, and I’m now glad that we didn’t. This outpouring of data makes this a tremendously exciting time to be in security.

Sharing data gets your voice out there. Verizon has just catapulted themselves into position as a player who can shape security.

That’s because of their willingness to provide data. I was going to say give away, but they’re really not giving the data away. They’re trading it for respect and credibility.

Verizon, we can hear you now. We can also hear Debix, the ITRC and the DoJ. Because they’re buying credibility with their data.

(Disclaimer: I’m a Debix shareholder, and I reviewed a draft of their report.)